Clutter and Recycling

No doubt you’ve heard about the disastrous floating “island” consisting of hundreds, perhaps thousands of square miles of garbage that has collected in the Pacific Ocean. It is the result of extreme clutter that can’t be broken down by Nature. You’ve also probably heard of fracking which has by-products so toxic that poisons are released into the atmosphere too extreme to dissipate back into the atmosphere or groundwater.

It seems like every week we hear about something that is clogging, choking, or poisoning the planet because we, as stewards of this great rock, are not doing a good job of cleaning up after ourselves.

As individuals trying to cope with these kinds of global disasters, we might feel helpless and hopeless. But we can be effective in our own lives. We can raise our awareness of our own personal toxic messes by de-cluttering our own backyards, so to speak. Where is the toxic island in your house? Is it under the bed? Under the kitchen sink? In the garage or spare room?  Although we may not have the power to tackle an island of plastic and sludge in the Pacific, we do have the power to be more mindful of our own clutter heaps. Tackling our own natural disasters is ultimately empowering. And we can learn a lot. Like monitoring our inner dialog. Instead of groaning and re-iterating some negative message like “Why haven’t I done this before?” or “How could I be such a slob?” (or worse yet, blaming someone else for it), reinforce a positive message. “I’m doing a very good thing for myself,” or “I am doing a great job of organizing,” as examples.

We can also become more mindful of how we dispose of things, which leads to more consciousness about what and how much we buy. (Do I really need yet another brand of shampoo?) Developing better buying and disposal habits becomes a chain reaction. Keeping out own messes under control may seem like one small step for man, but you know the rest.